Bittersweet Chocolate Soufflé

While fluffy, warm and completely delicious, soufflé has an unfortunate reputation of being extremely temperamental to prepare. It's probably because of the perceived fragility of the egg whites-- one errant puff of wind and the dessert could deflate like a sad balloon. Admittedly, I do find French desserts to be pretty finicky. For instance, I have yet to master macarons or croissants. Soufflés aren't so bad though, especially if you keep a few tips and tricks in mind. Notes are in the recipe below!

This recipe makes a tasty soufflé that is chocolatey without being too sweet. Even better, the batter can hold up for 30 minutes between preparation and baking though I have not tested this. This stability is a good thing, since you will want to serve it immediately out of the oven before it falls flat. Soufflé photography is kind of stressful; the first image was taken about 20 seconds out of the oven. A minute later, it looked like this:

It inevitably sinks before your eyes. At this point, there's nothing left to do but dig in...

The soufflé was light and airy with a soft center and thin, crisp crust. There's still some room for improvement though. For one, I'd prefer the top to be less cracked. I also wanted to get the "top hat" effect, created by running a knife around the perimeter of the ramekin before baking. The cut obviously did not stay while baking since my souffle came out looking more "helmet" than "top hat", but I'll blame the recipe for that. Shh. I guess this means there are more soufflés to bake (and eat) in my future. What a pain.

Recipe after the jump!

Parisian Perfection: Macarons

At first encounter, the macaron seems quite simple. It is a meringue-based cookie made from 3 main ingredients: egg whites, ground almonds, and sugar. Various fillings such as ganache or buttercream are sandwiched in the middle (kind of like an Oreo, but infinitely more sophisticated).

But look a little closer, and the macaron reveals a much more complicated character. The texture of the macaron is an enigma: buttery-smooth center, moist, chewy and airy interior covered by a perfectly smooth, crisp top that is as thin as an eggshell.

It is also clear that the macaron is not your typical "milk and cookies" kind of confection. Culturally speaking, it seems that macarons have exploded in popularity in recent years, surpassing the cupcake as the darling of the foodosphere. It is a generally accepted fact that Paris is home to the finest specimens in the world (macarons are French, after all). Pierre Desfontaines of Ladurée is credited for creating the macaron as we know it (the sandwich cookie variety). Today, Ladurée still bakes up thousands of them daily in an impressive array of flavours and colours from liquorice and orange blossom to rose and bergamot. Of course, Ladurée is not the only purveyor of these petite sweets; Lenôtre, Gérard Mulot, Dalloyau, and Pierre Hermé are just a few other fine French patisseries that offer excellent macarons. Luckily. the recent popularity of macarons means that you do not have to live in France to be seduced by these beautiful and elegant treats. It's likely that you could find them at a local bakery. You can even try your hand at making them at home!

This is my second attempt at these. My first was about 3 years ago and I was not aware of the little details that are required to make these work. Needless to say, the resulting pans of sad looking little egg white blobs weren't exactly a hit. This time around, I was armed with new tricks and things worked out much better. I kept things simple by making the shell one colour, and using two flavours of fillings (chocolate and raspberry buttercreams). I accidentally toasted the ground almonds while trying to dry them out, which led to a nuttier flavoured cookie, and a darker, cream colour rather than snowy white (or whatever colour you'd choose to tint them). While the ingredient list is deceptively simple, there is a degree of technique involved in making these! I have included many tips below, and with practice, there is nothing to stress over. Make sure you can set aside 5-6 hours to make these (don't worry, there's a lot of "resting" time).

The method is rather unusual, yet clever. By letting the piped batter sit for two hours before baking, the confectioner's sugar dries to form the characteristic thin shell. When the batter is baked, the shell rises and the liquid center pools out underneath to form the ruffled "feet." (I danced around the kitchen when I saw the "feet" through the oven door. Is that weird? No?) Clearly, the sky's the limit when it comes to variations, and I cannot wait to try different flavours in the future! Curious to give it a try? Well, without further ado, here's the recipe!

Crepes...Fancy French Fare?

Crepes can be a little tricky to make, but as soon as you have the "pan swirl" move down, you can impress your guests for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. (Really.)

Crepes are extremely versatile; you can make them savoury or sweet, dressed up or down. You can crisp up a crepe in a muffin tin and you have a tart shell, or stack them up to make a crepe gateau. (One of my favorite desserts in New York City is the Lady M Mille crepe. Paper thin crepes are layered with whipped cream and finished with caramelized sugar. So decadent!)

Lady M works her magic

I made these for breakfast, so they were served with whipped cream and berries. I also like them the French way: plain with a squeeze of lemon and sprinkling of sugar, known as crepes au sucre.
(If you want something absolutely lethal, fill a sweet crepe with Nutella chocolate hazelnut spread, and some chopped toasted hazelnuts. Serve it up and be showered with praise.)

Crepes:

4 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tablespoons oil or melted butter
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar (for sweet crepes)

In a medium bowl, beat eggs slightly. Add remaining ingredients and beat until smooth. Batter may be covered and refrigerated up to 2 hours or cooked immediately. Heat crepe pan over medium high heat. A few drops of water should bounce and sizzle when heated properly. Grease pan lightly with oil. Pour scan 1/4 cup batter into pan, immediately swirling to coat evenly. When crepe is light brown around the edges and set (about 2 minutes) flip and brown on the other side.

Yield about 20 crepes

Storage: Wrap well in foil and store in refrigerator up to 3 days, or freeze up to 3 months. To thaw, place package in 300F oven for 10-15 minutes

Where to eat:

Lady M Confections
41 E 78th St
New York, NY 10075-0271

Credit to the Pillsbury Cookbook
Image property of beets and bites and uppereast.com

Return of the Soupspoons Sunset (Canneles de Bordeaux)

Once upon a time there was a cafe and a young girl. This cafe was called "Soupspoons" and served French bistro-style soups and sandwiches. They also had a well-stocked pastry case. The girl visited every so often and loved a particular dessert called "Sunsets." These little domed disks were not quite cake, nor cookie, nor crepe, but somehow a combination of all three. They had a chewy, deeply caramelized crust and a vanilla scented, crepe-y interior.

One day, the cafe closed. The girl was sad that she couldn't buy the Sunsets anymore. Being an (anonymous) foodie, she went on a search for the recipe. As it turns out, the dessert was a Soupspoons original and the recipe was nowhere to be found. Defeated, the girl gave up her search.

A few years later, the girl flips open a baking book and finds a recipe for canneles. Intrigued, she reads on and realizes that the Sunsets that she so loved may have been related to these finicky French pastries. And so she begins her journey to bake the perfect cannele and perhaps recreate the Sunset...

OK, so maybe not the perfect cannele. Because, as many French pastries are, they are notoriously difficult to get right. For one thing, the tins are supposedly coated in beeswax to produce a crisp crust. Then, they often pop out of the molds while baking so the bottom does not brown properly. Apparently, some bakers in Bordeaux have given this phenomenon the charming name of "white asses" (their words, not mine). They take two days to make because the flour must hydrate overnight. There are entire forums devoted to cannele baking, from the perfect mold to use (silicon? aluminum? copper? tin?) to the best mixing techniques.

I was intrigued. These little cakes had no leavening, and each tiny portion is baked in a 400F oven...for an hour. I was also a little intimidated, but this project was more for fun than anything else.

I didn't have proper cannele molds so I baked them in some small brioche tins instead. Surprisingly, they did not blacken to a crisp after baking. Once cooled, the outside is very crunchy and caramel-y, and the inside remains a little custardy, and a little chewy.

They are supposed to be consumed within 8 hours of exiting the oven, but I tried one the next day and they actually did taste a lot like Sunsets. The crisp exterior was now chewy and spongey, and retained that wonderful deep burnt sugar taste. The recipe for the Sunset will remain a mystery, but maybe it was a version of a (stale, but really great) cannele after all.

I actually do not know what a cannele really should taste like so I don't know if my experiment was a success. I thought these were pretty tasty, but I'll pick up an authentic specimen next time I'm at a French bakery. But for your reference, this is what they are supposed to look like:


And this is a "Sunset":
Canneles de Bordeaux:

Makes 10-11 canneles:

2 cups whole milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled
3/4 cups cake flour
Pinch of salt
1 cup less 2 tablespoons superfine sugar
4 extra-large egg yolks
1 tablespoon dark rum
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
"White Oil" (see note)

1. Heat milk in a saucepan over low heat to 183F.

2. Pulse butter, flour, and salt in a food processor until combined. Add sugar and pulse once or twice to mix.

3. Add egg yolks and process until the mixture begins to tighten.

4. With the motor running, quickly add the milk in a stream. Strain through a fine-meshed sieve and press through any congealed egg yolks. Stir in rum and vanilla. Cool to room temperature and store in the fridge for 24 hours.

5. 6-7 hours before serving, brush the molds with white oil and set crown side down on a tray. Freeze for 30 minutes.

6. Heat oven to 400F. (375F if using convection oven)

7. Place chilled molds 1 1/2" apart on the sheet. "Paddle" the batter with a spatula to recombine and fill molds almost to the top. Bake on the bottom rack of the oven 1 3/4 to 2 hours (until deep brown or, if desired, almost black) (Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes if using convection).

8. Remove molds from oven and unmold immediately (firmly rap the crown against a hard surface. If cannele sticks, return to oven for 5-10 minutes, or use a knife to help). Cool completely before serving.

Note: To make white oil: Melt 1 ounce of beeswax in a 1 pint glass measuring cup. Melt in the microwave and stir in enough safflower oil to make a whitened liquid, thin enough to coat the back of a spoon. Cool to room temperature and store at room temperature in a glass container.


Credit to Paula Wolfert

Image property of beets and bites, mimiofparis.com, and evalu8.org (in order of appearance)